The Big Bend Outdoors Show 07.27.24

This is the Big Bend Outdoors Show with Joel Baldree

Original Airdate 07.27.24

Today's guests include: Captain Paul Tyre, Captain Kenny Mullins, Carson and Dave Faulk, and special guest Dale Bessey

Tune in to new episodes every Saturday at 8am on 96.5 The Spear in Tallahassee and on demand with the free iHeartRadio app

Episode Transcript

(00:01):
This is the Big Bend Outdoor Showwith Joel Baldry. Today's guest include Captain
Paul Tyre, Captain Kenny Mullins,Carson and Mike Falk from Mike's Marine,
and special guest Dale Bessie. Here'syour host, Joel Baldry. Ahi,
guys, welcome to the Big BenOutdoor Show. Today. We've got mister

(00:22):
Carson and mister Mike Fault his father. Uh, you know, they do
a lot of traveling, bass fishingand stuff like that. I'm gonna turn
it over to mister Paul right there. Mister Paul wants to ask some questions.
I sure do. I tell youwhat, this is a man,
This is an honor and proved tohave. Carson fought a bass Master of
Classic high School qualifier on the bassMaster of Classic stage. That's just incrow.

(00:44):
I know we're gonna get into someof that, but you know Mike
y'all on Mike's Marine. Yes,sir, and I think your dad started
that, didn't he. Yes,they're in nineteen seventy, we've been just
we're in our fifty fourth year,fifty four years in the boating and and
and industry. That's that's incredible.I know I've dealt with you all in
the past and and and still doof course. And man, I tell

(01:07):
you what it's you have some greatknowledge with your with your guys there that
work on the engines and keep theboats running. There's some good guys down
there. That tells you something aboutbeing in business fifty four years. You
know what you're doing and you ain'tdoing nothing wrong, right business, that's
right. Well, we've been blessing. We've got good guys, yes,
sir, good employees, been withus a long time, and they take
pride in what they do, Yes, sir, yep, they sure do.

(01:30):
Carson, tell them what was itlike to to weigh in some fish
on the bass Master Classic stage?Tell us about that, buddy, oh
Man, that's cool rolling in througha big arena, seeing a bunch of
people and weighing in fish. That'sa that's a good experience that most people
might never get the experience. That'sright, that's right. I mean,
how what where was it at?It was? It was at the Bok

(01:51):
Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma. GrandLike then? Was it all right?
No? The elite boys fished onGrand Lake and we fell on a little
lake called Keystone Lake. I've heardof it. I've heard of it,
Keystone Lake Brand Arena. How manypeople on the arena, Carson? I
think that day we had there wasprobably eight or nine thousand people there.

(02:13):
Not amazing, man, that's justsimply amazing. How's how's that feel when
you get does a hair on theback of your next stand up? When
you go through something like that?I mean, oh yeah, it does
whenever, whenever it whenever they call, whenever they roll your truck through it,
it'll make a n Oh yeah,it'll make you. It'll make you
feel special coming through there. Andwell you are special. I mean if

(02:36):
you're at the past master elite inyour division, Yeah, you're a pretty
special guy. You've done well,sir. When it comes to the traveling
and everything and all this. Howlong have you been doing this? I've
been on the road doing it forhigh school since twenty twenty, so fourth
year or fifth year on the roaddoing it. And I mean it's been

(03:00):
a really good experience going from thegoing from Lego Keichobe to Oklahoma to Tennessee,
Georgia, fishing all over the place. Well, I know, not
to call your parents on Thursday andFriday because ye're all gone somewhere now here
on the road. Don't call usneck, don't call us any day next
week either. What was the ageyou started bass fishing? High school?

(03:23):
Just fishing tournament I'm talking about ingeneral. Yeah, yeah, we'll hear
that right, five years old gothim started, and I he's and then
created a spence of hobby force.Started off in the bay chasing trout and
red fishing, and slowly moved intothat's a good question. What what,

(03:46):
Carson? What got you into bassfishing? You know what I mean?
So we have so we have ahouse that actually his dad, actually my
dad's dad had on the lower endof the O'clockney River, and along we're
catching red fish at the mouth ofthe river. Every once in a while
you catch a bias and then allit just the chips fell into place and
we let it roll and everything.And do you have friends? What grade

(04:12):
are you in currently? I willbe a senior this year in high school?
Okay, perfect, Now that you'rea senior this year or next year?
Well this upcoming this upcoming year.Yeah, okay, so you got
how many of your friends? Itake it you go to Wacola High I
do go to a Calor High school, and we had high school. We
have I think five or six otherpeople who do it on our trail.

(04:32):
And then my fishing partner's from Georgia. But I know a bunch of people
from Georgia, Texas, w we'sin all over that do it. And
your fishing partner's name is Trey Blackman. Trey Blackman, and how'd you and
trade meet? So my fishing partnerthe first year I ever did it,
my fishing partner, he was asenior and was leaving and I fished with

(04:53):
him his last season and he wasreally good friends with this kid, and
he he wanted to fish a highschool like our high school stuff. And
he never his dad would never,like could never find the time to bring
him down to do it. Andwe started fishing some. I got to
know him real well, and Iwas like, man, he's he's got
it going on for himself. Andand then one day I was like,

(05:14):
hey, you want to fish oneseason. We can get you down here
and you can fish the whole season. And we fished the first season together
and we made it to nationals.Like the third tournament we fished Wow.
And then the next year we didthe same thing, and now this would
be our third year fishing together.Yeah, that's so cool. And you
guys, so who's in charge ofthe troll of motor when you're on it?

(05:34):
Doesn't might? Whatever you can doand run it just as good as
the other, can't you. Yeah, that's wait and needs to be.
That's awesome. That's awesome. Soso let me ask you. I know
of you. I know some collegesare already kind of trying to get you
to come. Have you thought aboutanywhere you're going yet? Or I've thought
about a couple places, But themain one I've really been focusing on here

(05:57):
lately is University of North Alabama.Is they're really to get school. They
have some really good kids at fishfor me, and I know a bunch
of them. Really Well that's cool. There you go goals and making your
goals. So Mike, uh,tell us what it's like you go from
father to over the road truck driverto a boat captain and then you know,

(06:23):
you go back to you know,the boat captain and then coming back
home. It's just it's you know, there, it's a lot of work.
I don't think people realize the amountof time and commitment these kids put
into what they do. And asparents, you know, you you really

(06:45):
as a boat captain and a parent. When I'm in a boat with him,
all I can do is drive theboat. I can't dip net a
fish. I can't really tell himanything he needs to do what he should
do. I mean, you're reallyall you're there to do is boat captain,
drive the boat. That's it.That's it, And that's kind of
hard for you to being a dad. You can't for what to tell him

(07:06):
what to do. When I hearon that boat, I bet you got
something you're biting down on it time. You close your eyes a lot,
and you know, whenever one ofthem says I got a big one on
and you just kind of close youreyes. Then whenever you hear them say
it's in the net and it's kindof it's good, you know, it's

(07:27):
it's there's a lot of emotional upsand downs and highs and lows. You
just got to keep them in themiddle as you can. It's a great
opportunity to learn lifeless, isn't it. It's mission traveling. You know you're
going to have make it the bassMaster of Classic. I'm sure there's tournaments
where you've had it's been tough,and you have to have terments when you've
done well. That's what's that's what'sso awesome, I think for it's the

(07:50):
high school, you know, andit starts in middle school. Did you
do it in middle school too?I did it my my eighth grade year
while I fished with a kid thanhigh school. So I moved up to
high school. So I'll be fishinghigh school for five years instead of only
for four. Gotcha? And man, that's that's awesome. I tell you
today. You know, this isthe information age and bass fishing. You

(08:11):
know when when I when I Iused to have to take my magazine and
go out on late Jackson, gookay, let me learn how to do
my bass maasterom. Now we gotYouTube, you know what I mean?
There's you can learn so fast andimplement things you see faster. It's and
people are learning faster. And wegot live scope too. Case that's one
of my questions. I don't askyou about that, say you're not you're

(08:35):
not in the group. Do weneed to ban live Scope? No?
Absolutely, absolutely not. I meanI have you know, being guiding people.
And man, people love that Itake them crappee fishing. Might now
people that's never used it, andthey're like, oh, they get excited.
You know what I mean, Idon't matter. I from from the
oldest person down to a kid,it's that's a fun, fun thing to

(08:58):
do. And man, I tellyou can learn a lot. Yes,
you can learn a lot about thefish's behavior and what not to do,
what to do, and we andwhen a lot of people don't understand,
we're also chasing fish that we've neverbeen able to chase before. So you're
chasing fish that used to be suspendedfrom six inches to two foot off the
bottom or saying with a and withcertain techniques you could even get them to

(09:20):
four to five foot off the bottom. But now we're able to chase fish
in twenty foot of water that aresitting ten foot under the surface. That
used to if you idled over,you'd say, oh, that's a gar
sitting down there. Oh that's catfish. Well you you get a bait down
there, you don't really know whatit is. And it's really helped it
really helped us a lot figure outthe true potentials of some of these lakes.

(09:41):
That's right, that's right. Isee that too. Now I'm going
to bring up I want to hearabout another woman to talk about this machine
and all the electronics and everything.But as you have a sister that's a
twin, is she not? Yes? Or she is? Okay, well,
tell us about tell us about yoursister. She is the spokesperson for

(10:05):
the shop, I guess you couldsay, and runs all the social media
stuff and also ride horses every oncein a while a while. Okay,
what's her name? Kaylin Kalen,big supporter of the plan? Is the
family operation, Yes, sir,it is, it really is. There's
about yep, about the whole family. Is there about every day at the
shop? That's awesome? And howabout on the road when you're traveling on

(10:28):
the road. Yeah, they allcome on the road, me, me
and iad Mom and then my sister. That's so great and everything. And
you know, I keep thinking aboutwhen you entered that arena. Is that
the first time you were pulled intoan arena I've been. That was the
first time I've ever wait and fishon a bas Master Classic stage. I

(10:48):
got the privilege at the first baseMaster Classic I ever went to It was
in twenty twenty one. I thinkit was on Lake Gunnersville. That was
the first one that Hank Cherry oneand and I was there for that,
and y'amaha had their boat out there, and it was and it was about
negative forty seven thousand and for degrees. But but we but we rode around

(11:13):
in the boat, got to watchall the pros blast off. And then
and then I got the privilege towrite in Mark Menendez, he's still former
Elites. Hereies Angler's truck as hegot pulled through the arena. Oh wow
was out. Oh that was prettycool and it would like to match for
you for sure. That's right.I hate to interrupt, but we got
to go to a quick commercial andthen we'll continue this conversation. All right,

(11:46):
guys, welcome back to the show. Right here, we still got
Carson talking about uh, well,Dall's wanting to ask more questions about uh
his sister. Yeah. I think, well, I know it's a family
operation and everybody's involved in the travelingand setting up everything. And I know
your sister works hard down there.I've seen her Facebook posts where she's when

(12:07):
you had your big boats sail andeverything and she is doing her live Facebook
posts and she did a great joband and all. But when you're going
through this and all, uh isyour number one? Does your sister fish?
She fishes a little bit. Weused to fish a couple of club
tournaments together whenever I first started.And yeah, she fishes. And she
also rides horses competitively, just abudeevery weekend too. And what kind was

(12:31):
she ride? English? Yeah,she rides English and hunter jumps, hunter
jumps. So she's now let meget this right. You're touring nationally bass
fishing, yes, sir, Andshe's showing hunter jumpers. Yep. How
does this work? Uh? Mom? Mike, Mike, Mom takes her,
Mom takes her down down south somewhereto ride horses. Mayday we died,

(12:56):
and I we go wherever we needto to go catch a fish,
all right. We just we keepour fingers crossed that the schedules don't conflict.
And we've been blessed here you knowlately that they haven't, you know,
but if they do. Me andCarson we go one way. Laurie
and Kaitlin they go the other way. So it's so I'm what I'm hearing

(13:18):
is there's a house available for renton the weekends. This family is on
the go, buddy. That's allSOMEO. I know that. Uh.
You know, your your family's alwaysbeen great people and and and sponsor of
the Rock the Dock and Redfish.You know, the UH was you got

(13:41):
Rock the Dock and then Rock Readsand and everything. And you're so involved
in the community down there and supportingthe uh the community of Pantace and Wacola
County, but also being involved inthis allows obviously to support a lot of
things, uh in the fishing industry. And you, I mean, you're
really really growing into a position ofbeing a leader in Wacola County. So

(14:07):
I'm sure you have some fans.Oh yeah, we do. Everywhere we
go. I have some people sayI saw you one time, and it's
cool walking walking into a gas stationand you have people that you can just
hear him back there, I thinkI know who that is, or or
oh man, I've seen him beforeand it's really cool. Whenever, especially
whenever I go to some lakes Ihave done really good on I mean,

(14:28):
it's like a recurring thing. Wow, and it never it never gets old.
Who do you idling the process?Well, one of my really good
buddies actually started me like really hardinto into catching some with actually Drew Cook
he I think it was every weekwe were somewhere two days a week.

(14:52):
It didn't matter where it was laketalking lake Semino, it didn't matter.
We were there and and we reallylike he was one that started that really
kicked off, I mean me fishingtournaments. And yeah, it was a
good experience fishing with him. Andthen here's a bunch of other people.
So a person and we talk aboutthis a lot on the show Carson about
people taking kids fishing. Oh yeah, and that's why we were very excited

(15:16):
to have you on the show today. Joel was very excited about it to
call me this morning. We weretalking about and everything because you're the perfect
representation of what can happen if youtake a kid fishing. Yes, actually,
and actually I've taken a bunch ofa bunch of kids out on the
lake. And like we were talkingabout earlier, I showed, I mean

(15:37):
I took a kid to Lake Talquhena couple of weeks ago and we and
we went and caught We went andcaught a bunch of them. You and
on livescoping like we say, Imean did just like to see their faith
brighten up whenever they catch one andthey're like, oh my lord, this
is or whenever one of them catchestheir new personal best with you, like
that's that's a good feeling to say, dang, that's like he did it.

(16:00):
And I'll tell you something else too. Have you ever take a senior
citizen? They want to take asenior citizen to Lake Tapping. I'm all
laying brother, that makes some exceptions, makes some exception. I promise I
won't slip and fall. You havea wheelchair. But you know you said

(16:22):
all ago that you started around fiveyears old, and that's my little boy's
five. And we had him onthe radio show you know what two weeks
ago, three weeks ago, Paul, Yes, that was awesome, and
uh man, that's it's the bestfeeling in the world. You're talking about
catching. You know, you're goingout there, you're messing around with him.
You're already spending time with them whenthey ain't catching. You know how
hard it is to keep a fiveyear old occupied. Trust when I when

(16:44):
I go up to a hole,you know, not there, but especially
with a red fish and a trout, you know, I got him out
there with a four horseman court andhe is having a feel. They like,
won't let me help him nothing.Now when I'm fished off button,
I got to find something to doquick quick, and I heard. You
know, you have to compare itto a guide trip. And your toughest

(17:04):
audience is your son, your daughter, your wife, whoever it is,
because you know they always see youbring in fish, bring in fish,
and then when you take them,they automatically expect fish all day, you
know, so when when we've started, it's you know, and you have
to keep it simple, you know, you keep it simple, you know,

(17:26):
let them cast, teach them howto cast. Whether it's not all
about just the catch, and it'sabout the process. I take you one
time. Then when you learn theprocess, and then you know, the
other come some of them pay,telling them boys, I gotta be careful
because I teach him too good andthen it short out fish. I mean,
I can't have that. I can'thave that. You know. I

(17:48):
had three. I had me anda buddy and him on the boat was
fishing a tournament and it was allartificial, you know, saltwater. And
I looked over and he had agood red fish twenty three four fish.
I said, I want to putthe net under me like that. Do
you help him get his fishing?I got this one, and I went
over and scooped that one up.And I looked over and all of a
sudden wham on the deck. Isaid, you're gonna kill him away.

(18:10):
He said, he's going to thehills five years old, you know.
But he won an eighteen and underdivision on that so and that set him
off, like every you know,we're gonna fish this tournament. We're gonna
fish that well. And he's,uh, he's all into it. Well.
We we fished all the saltwater tournamentsas Carson was, you know,
old enough to fish the youth divisionsand so forth. And then when when

(18:36):
COVID hit for some reason, allthe saltwater tournaments went away, I mean,
you know, rocked the dog everything. All the saltwater tournaments ended,
but the fresh water tournaments kept going, kept going, kept going, kept
going. And that opened the doortoo for Carson to move into that fresh
water side because he didn't have thesalt water tournaments to fish, and he

(18:59):
enjoyed the atmosphere of the tournaments.You see, that's you know. I
never got into bass fishing. Ialways wanted to. I'm that guy on
the boat. He could just abouthooking for me. I wouldn't get that
bass in there. I've had severalmisses, were blowing up on frogs on
top water, snaps too early.You know, it's just several. But
trouting red fish I don't have notrouble with. But my kids they love
it. Now. My five yearold, he ain't got introduced to it

(19:22):
yet, but I'm sure if heever got into it, he'd be hooked
on it. But I get sodagon mad, and you got to go
chase a bass too. Trout andredfish. I love it because somebody wants
to catch fish. I'll say,you got a baby boat, yep,
Well let's go really send some troutingredfish. But I mean, I honestly
liked basfishing because it's all about thechase and and there's a reward at the

(19:45):
end of the day for finding thatone little place that that you know,
like there's like you whenever you getthat feeling that there's aw, yeah there
there. If you get that thatfeeling that there's there's a couple of them
sitting down there then you didn That'swhat it's all about. Really. Hey,
I went to a little place calledIcast last week. You know anything
about I cas I was there too. Was there? Did you meet Matt

(20:07):
Robertson by you? Oh? Yeah, I have a bunch of his hats
on them, off them, allof them. That joker is the real
deal. I said, I don'tknow much about bass fishing, but he
was come up beside me and wastalking. I said, you look familiar.
He's like, well I should.And I looked at him some more,
and then the way he talks itjust I said, I've seen you.

(20:29):
I said, you the one thatgot undressed and you got a big
fine on the back. And he'slike, man, everybody knows me.
But yeah, he was a goodcharacter man and a good person. I
mean he talked to you like anormal human being. And and I had
a real good talk with him,you know, and hung out with him
a few nights at the VIP sections. So we had some fun together and
a lot of talks. He's actuallygonna come up here and go fishing with
us. So yeah, he's,like I said, he's a down the

(20:52):
earth deed. You wouldn't never thinkthat he's a pro angler just the way
he is, but that Joger isthe real deal. He can catch them.
Yes, sir, who did youmeet down there beside him? Well,
so there's a couple of guys thatI know that are Logo obviously,
Drew Cooking and Randall Thorpe. Helives. He lives actually right on the
coast. He actually stopped by theother day and we talked for a while.

(21:14):
Randall Thorpe's good guy. Mark meanIndez is a really, really,
really good guy. He'll stop totalk to anybody, he'll take a picture
with anybody. And then I mean, then I've just talked to a bunch
of different bake companies, and there'ssome other pros that I talked to,
like Drew Benton. He's really good. I mean, just he'll stop and
talk to anybody too. That's howmost of them are. Man. Like

(21:34):
I said, I didn't know anyof them. I didn't even know that
Matt Robinson. I just sent himon YouTube, and you know how people
share stuff on TikTok. I'm like, I know this guy from somewhere and
we just got to talk and hitit off, and then all of a
sudden Godwin walked up off Dynasty andthen they got real good. He foolish,
I said, well, old man, I said, I just met
you, belly butuddy about something.I don't know what he was doing,

(21:55):
but that joker, he's a characteritself. No croppy man, Yeah,
the crappy man. Yeah, he'sall about the crapping fishing question. Let
me ask you this, Yes,sir, as the schedule came out for
next year, it has came out. The first tournament of the years on
Lake Okachobee. When is it September? Starting September? Yes, and the
lake and the lakes had a goodand the lakes had a good level too.

(22:17):
They can just keep grass in it. It'll be a good tournament.
Yeah, yeah, what's that?Remember? I think is my next one?
Lake Simino. Yeah, you've gotSeptember, You've got October of the
lake Seminole. November will be theHarris chain that'll be going to December will
be on River Saint John's River,and then all repeat itself, you know,

(22:42):
for the next four months in thesame order again. In the springtime
two we're waiting on bass to comeout. With the high school opens,
there'll be four of those, andthey'll be anywhere from clark Hill to sam
Rayburn to sagon All Bay, lateChickamauga. There's really we just don't know

(23:03):
exactly where they're gonna be, butthere will be four of the opens and
we'll sign up to fish if tofish all for the opens. Man,
I saw some Hey Paul, Ihate the interrupt, brother, but we
got to go to a quick commercialand you can start back on it in
a second. Thank y'all for tuningthem. All right, guys, welcome

(23:27):
back to the show. Mister Paulwas asking about the scheduling right there,
and what's going on you know nextyear's bass tournaments. Yeah, all right.
You've got the regular season Florida BassNation, which is an eight tournament,
an eight weekend tournament trail, andthen bass will have four national tournaments.

(23:48):
That's actually how Carson qualified to fishin the High School Classic was April
a year ago. They won toone on Chickamauga, so that qualified them
to be able to go to theBass Master Classic. And then coming up
next week August first, second,and third, you've got the Bass High

(24:08):
School National Championship, which also isgoing to be held on Lake Chickamauga.
This year, they take roughly threehundred of the top teams throughout the country
and they all come together on Chickamaugafor a three day tournament. There'll be
teams from Maine to New York,California, Las Vegas, South Dakota,

(24:32):
North Dakota. There'll be teams fromall over the country these days, places
where you don't even think there's water. Yeah, they'll they'll be teams there.
I never heard where's this chick Whatdo you say, Chickamauga. It's
on the Tennessee River just a bunch. It's actually just one lake above the
little lake called Lake Nika Jack onthe Tennessee River, which at dain Tennessee

(24:53):
Tennis. How was that tournament y'allwon? I mean, how did it
turn out that? Uh? Itwas at first, but we caught twenty
five pounds about ten minutes. Itwas at first until we casted. Yeah,
whenever you whenever the site, wheneverthe link they have to be.

(25:15):
It's fifteen inches and you roll upto your first and you roll up to
the first fish. We want it. We had like two on bed I
were sure enough big ones. Andwhenever you roll up to them, and
they and you set the hook onthem and you barely stick them, and
they come off, both of themtwice in a row. So you missed
two fish, and you made fourflips in there, and you miss both

(25:36):
of them. Then gets bad.And then I roll up to my next
spot, and I made forecast upto one little thicker clump of grass on
this giant grass flag, and acouple of days before I was catching four
or five pounders off of it,and that was fourteen and seven eights,
fourteen and three quarter, fourteen anda half, fourteen and a half,

(25:56):
and that have to be fifteen inches. And then I roll up to my
next spot, and actually a coupleof days before I caught a ten six
ten sixty off this hole. Thefish the fish I lost before, it
was just that big and I sawabout five or six of him down there.
And actually the second cast on thathole, my fishing partner, I
was like, see the dot saidten pounder on it. It was like,

(26:21):
you make a cash straight down thisline and let your bait hit the
bottom and start reeling it, youwill catch a big one. And the
second time he threw over there,he caught a seven eight, which was
his personal best, and then aboutten minutes later he caught another one.
I'm giving him all the credit forthis one. He caught another one,
he caught another one that was aboutfour pounds, and then after they caught
another one that was about four pounds, and he caught a five pounder,

(26:45):
and we were left. We hadone like fifteen in a quarter, and
you know, I had to dosomething there, so I threw my cricket
out there, and I caught fourpounder and then and then caught out another
one of his like two and ahalf, two and three quarters. So
we I mean, we had agood day. I mean we had those.
We caught a seven pounder at eleveno five, and we caught our

(27:07):
our fifth like our fifth coal.We caught our last coal fish at I
think it was eleven ten or elevenfifteen, and then after that we just
went and hot around. That's awesome. You know, I heard your dad
mentioned the Harris Chain of lakes.So I'm from Central Florida. I grew
up fishing Central Florida as a youngman your age, a little bit younger

(27:29):
and older, but back in theday, and I'm going way back,
man, probably forty years ago.Then I hey, yeah, that was
before Trolley Johnson's. Well, callit what you want. But they used

(27:52):
to have a tournament back in theday, and I don't even know if
it's still around, but it wascalled the Megabucks. Yes on the Harris
Chain. Don't have those anymore.Man, that was a big deal.
And you know that's where people,young people like me, we got to
see the Kevin Van Dam send theand the pros that are we're out there
and man, they pull in withthose ranger bass boats or Skeeters or all

(28:15):
these up. I know. I'msorry, bass player, go boss.
Yeah, okay, so stand upfor the brand, brother, I get
it. You got support. Whatsupports you, right, I said,
But back in the day that wasa big deal. I can't imagine now
being at a ramp and seeing allthese young people pulling in with these rigs

(28:40):
and you know when dad's in theboat. Has has dad ever got hit
by one of them bass coming intothe bow. No, I'm actually a
little bit mindful. Now. Now, you don't fall asleep. Now,
let's hear you do not fall asleepwhile sitting down there. We did have
a guy that boat caving in forme one tournament and he messed up.
He sat in the passenger seat andfell asleep. And I was fishing by

(29:00):
myself and I ho wing about threepounds and that sucker landed right in his
lap. So there is no fishlanding penalties. And I like the mL.
If I got Andy Montgomery, Ifollow him quite quite close. I
like me some Andy Montgomery and thenwith yeah, they're good people out of
Blacksburg, South Carolina. So butman, what a what a great life.

(29:25):
And what I'm what I'm really gladto hear about and really uh happy
to hear, is that you're spendingtime with others. Oh yeah, I
take it. You're sharing your blessingswith other people. And that all comes
down to your raising. You know, you got great parents, you've got
a great environment. But yet you'renot You're not one of these kids that
are going around, uh trying tobe better than other people. You're actually

(29:48):
reaching out and helping others, andbrother, that's to be commended. That's
the way to go. Like,I had two people text me yet I
one kid takes me yesterday twice askedme if we could go fishing this week.
I hear, yeah, So youknow, when it all comes down
to is we can't wait to haveyou on the show again. We want
to hear about your experiences as yougo and as you grow. Uh,

(30:11):
next time you come on the show. Uh, maybe you can bring your
partner. Yeah, I'll see ifI can get him down from from Georgia.
He lives about five hours and ifanything, if you can't make the
drive and have him call in,yeah, I'll get and everything. Because
I'd like to have you guys tellstories on each other. I know you
might have. At least I wouldy'all watch this. I got a question

(30:36):
now, I know you going backto Chicken Waging April. Thanks. We
talked about that bait you called himon Got Quiet. Oh yeah, no,
I can tell about it because thatbecause that grasps up, there's about
top down and they're in the fishin it for ten miles to catch him
on that hole. But but no, I actually called him. I actually
called him on the chatter bait Lakethe Lake Semino special Color if you know

(30:59):
what I'm talking about. Yeah,but yeah, And actually though whenever we
got down there for practice, itwas cold. I mean in first morning
we woke up, it was aTuesday. It was a Wednesday morning,
I think, and it was likethirty one whenever I back the boat in
the water and the water was clearand it had just came off of a
little bit of warm and I waslike, if they're in the grass,

(31:22):
everyone bike real good and and Iabsolutely reeled them in on a jig and
a chatter bait. Well, goahead, I'm sorry. The hate cars
of My question to you is,uh, we got listeners out there that
have kids that are your age maybeyounger, and everything. Explain to them
that you know, tell them allabout it far as yeah, what it

(31:44):
takes to do what you do,you can take. You can take a
the smallest aluminum boat, it doesnot matter. You could take a fourteen
foot job, but as long asit has a good enough live weel and
don't roll up. Then if youroll up to a ramp and you see
all these big path boats and everything, you don't have to be worried because,
trust me, I have seen somepeople kick some tail out of little

(32:05):
boats. And you don't have to. I mean, you don't have to
have the the latest and greatest togo win a tournament. You just focus
on your specialties and whatever you're goodat. If you can catch one up
shallow flipping the gig into a tree, you better go do that because I
can bet you you can win somemoney that other people can't. So I
mean it really doesn't take much.Just a good enough boats or a boat
that has a good enough live welland can get you from point A to

(32:28):
point B and get you back tothe ramp on time. But you need
that education, yes sir, alongthe way, yes you do. And
a coup now not everybody needs it, but a couple of good mentors along
the way, and just being ableto take little bits of information or be
able to listen to somebody talking aboutsomething and just soak in a couple little
bits of information that'll help you somuch along the way. And Mike talking

(32:53):
to the parents, what advice couldyou give them? Well, the biggest
thing is keep it simple. Youknow, of course when saying you don't
need one hundred thousand dollars bass,but you don't need you know, forty
seven riels, I mean it's justkeep everything simple. I started in a
G three sportsman like an eighteen photowith a ninety on it, so I

(33:14):
can with with one humming bird anda and a four track, so I
can tell you and it doesn't takea lot. He didn't. He did
have a trollo mode. He wasn'tsculling. We did so and you know,
and then yeah, it's just that'sthe thing. Keep it fun,
especially at a young age, that'sthe biggest thing. Keep it fun.

(33:37):
Keep the attention, you know,their attention in there. You know a
lot of times if you try tomake it too complicated and all you you
lose the kid. You know,he figures a lot of other things he'd
rather be doing. We think you'vedone an excellent job at that, because
he's probably sitting hook it in thesleep writer, so you can't sleep close
to him. Allowed to get aquestion about the tournaments, like when y'all

(34:01):
go to that place, Like whenyou go up there to practice, y'all
talk about practice. How many daysdo they give you on practice? This
so for nationals used to be youwould get three days of practice, sight
two and a half days of practice, and then you go straight into the
tournament because the half a day ofpractice you had to be off the water
by a certain time. Then you'dhave a meeting, you'd go in there,
get some free stuff that buys handsout and then you would talk about

(34:24):
rules, go over rules, makesure everybody knew the basic layout so somebody
can't say that they didn't know whatthe rules were. But now for this
year for nationals our practice, weactually so we have Sunday, Monday,
Tuesday, and then we have anoff day on Wednesday which will be for
meeting for the meeting at one ofthe big centers up there, and then

(34:45):
we'll have like a swagline you gothrough to get some free stuff that Bias's
lovely sponsors have provided for us,and then you just go back rig your
tackle and relax until first day ofthe tournament on Thursday, and that's when
it gets for real. Man,that's awesome. Men, men, uh,
we couldn't show up with her dynamiteand lobscoop cancel us out, no

(35:07):
catch, no gill on that Nothat coming, I ain't coming up.
Oh man, that's aw Y'ALLN LikeI said, it's it's really exciting to
see you know that you've done anexcellent job raising young It's expensive hobbies,
but hey, they ain't knocking offof seven eleven. They ain't, you
know, imprison a bass fishing andrunning horses, and you're gonna spend money

(35:29):
somewhere the other. That's right.It's gonna cost you one way or then.
That's right. Well, we gotto go to a quick commercial,
guys, and go stay tuned.We'll be right back with John. All
right, guys, welcome back toher final segment of the show. We

(35:50):
got Captain Catfish Kenny Mullins on thephone with us. He decided to call
in and not show up today.Yeah, a little busy. Hey,
we got some acial guests. Buttoday we've got mister Carson and mister Mike.
Uh. They've been running Mike's Marinefor over fifty something years and and
Carson's fishing into the bast classics andstuff in our school. So oh Mike,

(36:10):
Yeah, man, it's pretty cool. We've been having a lot of
good laughs and stuff. And wewas in the middle of a segment while
ago, so that's the reason wetold you to call in later. Was
talking about important stuff to the catfish. I don't know anything about cat Oh
come on, now, come on, how's everything I can tell you about
the trout and red fish this morning? Tell us about tell us about them.

(36:32):
Red fishing has been on fire.The uh, the trout's been you
know, still kind of hitting misssummertime fishing, but uh, you know,
just fishing, fishing the tides iskey with the trout. That water
movement. But the luck we've gota big water movement this weekend coming up.
Oh yeah, that's gonna be good. Be good week. It's gonna

(36:52):
yeah, that's gonna be this week'sgonna be good for this movie at three
point seven at six forty eight,and it's you know, going to a
point six, you know, inafternoon around two o'clock. Yeah, we're
seeing a bunch of bait showering inthe in the bay too. That's good.
So that's I mean, it's it'sgonna be real, you know,
real good this weekend. How's thewater. It's good, it's clear.

(37:15):
That's crazy showers and stuff we've beengetting. Yeah, and that's that's what
I was gonna tell you. That'suh, that's the reason I couldn't be
there this morning is having to tryto work in trips around all these these
showers. You know, we startedout and then one popped up that wasn't
on the radar, so we hadto come back in and wait it out,
which caused me to be late.But this time of year, that's

(37:37):
how it is, everyone prepared,being flexible. Hey, ain't no doubt
there, man, how's you said? The trouts, you know, kind
of scattered out. Still they ain't, you know, grouping back up.
They still kind of hitting miss.Yeah, I mean, uh, it's
not it's not even so much thatthey're scattered out. It's it's just to

(37:57):
catch them when they when they wantto eat, you. Like this morning,
whenever we got on them, thesmaller trout started eating first. Just
as that tide started moving. Itold the group that was with me,
I said, all right, withinthe next two drifts, we'll start catching
the bigger keeper trout. And itwas the actually the second drift, those
bigger trouts started feeding and I'm rightnow I'm catching them. And we were

(38:20):
in about three and a half ofwell really about three to four four and
a half really, I hit aboutfour point four and they shut off.
I had turned back around. Yeah, a couple of weeks ago. That
was in six foot of water,six and seven. Everybody was catching them.
If you go south towards south ofKeaton and towards Steinhatchie, you know,
you're looking at six and a halfto nine feet of water, and

(38:45):
if you go as you go north, you start getting into more of that
fresh water runoff from those creeks,and that water is a little bit cooler,
and you had that stain, andthose fish are in closer west of
water. Timp running this morning waseighty six and last week it was ninety
four. Yeah, that's a bigdifference. That's a big difference. Yes,

(39:06):
Yes, these showers is actually helpingus a little bit in that fresh
water coming out. It's moving themback in a little bit. And it's
kind of not like I said,as long as it don't miss the like
it was bad. Like I saidin December, it was terrible. It's
horrible around our area. As longas it don't get like, you know,
three or four inches at a time, you know, inch here,
half inch there, just to keepstuff cooled off. You know, we're
gonna be all right, and thefish is gonna get better and better as

(39:28):
the year progress. Oh yeah,and the scalloping still is still great.
Lots of lots of scallops this yearand not a lot of boats out there.
What's the Yeah, everybody, everybody'sworried about the sharks. Everybody's seeing
sharks on there. I'm gonna behonest, I'm seeing probably over half of
what I typically do, or lessthan half of what I typically do.
I mean, it's you know,last year, the year before that,

(39:52):
even the year before that, Iwould you know, on average, i'd
see three or four day, andnow I may see one every few days.
I think that fresh water has somethingto do with that too, keeping
them, keeping them out deep,because he's keeping a bunch of their their
main forage out deep too. Yeah, and that that you're probably right because
especially in our area, we don'thave the bait this year that we typically

(40:15):
do, you know, we neverI haven't seen any white bait yet.
Yeah. Me, I haven't seenany either around us or down around Pantasy
Area. I haven't seen any downthere either. Yeah. And it's it's
actually it's impacted a lot. Imean, even last year I brought back
I think it was seventeen keeper kobea. This year, you know, I

(40:36):
haven't caught a keeper. I didn'ttarget him as much this year, but
just because I wasn't seeing the numbers, so I just tried away from them.
Yeah, I haven't heard of akeeper Kobe caught yet this this season,
which is odd, which is veryrare for right now in the shower
water, right, yeah, andit's I'm still seeing I mean, there's
there's a lot of a lot oftarpin out there, and even then,

(40:59):
I'm not seeing the hammerheads that typicallyfollow this tarp and I'm not seeing the
numbers of those. And it maybebecause yeah, oh yeah, and it
maybe, like you said, thethe lack of bait. And he keeps
a pair of his drawers there onthe back of his boat and it drifts
around there where the shark is nota lot to stink. Hey, it's

(41:22):
the pair. It's the pair thatI loaned to Joel that he wiped all
the catfish while I'm on it.Yeah, we know that's a myth.
We know who catches all the catfishbecause you don't fish and when it's when
it's tough in the summertime when theystart. But because then I had to
be like a catfish king like you, I don't want to do that.
I don't want to carry that reputation. Hey what the scarlets? What what

(41:45):
you know? What depths are youfinding them out? For? This morning?
We were the grass was literally touchingour bellies. We're so shallow.
All the other boats were out furtherand we were in them. Good didn't
have a boat within probably one thousandyards of us. I typically don't like

(42:05):
it that shallow, but when youhave smaller kids, you know, that's
it's perfect. And it was theyoung kids first time. So but they're
they're everywhere, and that's said,that's that's a good sign. Like I
said, we ain't had that muchrain to push them out further, you
know, so that's been a blessing. I mean you can get out there
in seven eight feet of water andfind them. In fact, the further

(42:28):
you go towards Seahatchie, the furtherout they are. I see it.
Last year, it wasn't like that, correct, It was correct. Yeah,
I never I never got deeper thanfour feet last year. Yeah,
about three or four times of thatme diving down a six foot of water.
I'm getting back on the boat anyway, so I get right there.
But yeah, I actually prefer thema little deeper because you know, you

(42:49):
can see them better, and uh, you know, you can slow down
and pick out three or four orfive and swim down one time, pick
all those up. Most people likea shallower, Yeah, I'm I like
it, you know, around fourfoot. I don't want that grass touching
me though, I don't. Idon't like that. I like to be
able to snorkel around and go downthere and get them. I don't want
that grass touching me where I'm walking. I just yeah, I didn't like

(43:10):
it this morning helping them out,but you know it's good for the kids.
So have you been in my areafishing or you've been staying around keating.
I plead the fist you better stayout in my area. He's poaching
on our side. Yeah he is. It needs I can tell you this.

(43:31):
I've been in some dark water.Yeah. You heard Carsony say you
poaching on our side. You gottastay. Yeah, you got to stay.
You got to stay filing holloway backwhen you that means yeah, when
you can't catch him, that meansthere's plenty over there for me to come.

(43:52):
I am letting my population build backup because we heard him too bad
during the winter time. He didso. I mean, they don't forget.
You know, your guy told mewhen he came with me he never
caught a trout. All he couldcatch with you is catfish. I called
that joker said, you go fromKenny from now, And he's like,
man, he just told me tosay that. I was messing with you

(44:15):
cause I told him I said youcan go on that, but from now,
all I catch is catfish. Andhe's like, whoa, Yeah,
I made that real clear. Butyeah, man, it's I'm hoping.
I'm hoping the fall. It's alot better than it was last year.
And the way it's looking right NOWNDknock on wood, we keep these hurricanes
away and everything else, which youknow, hurricane ain't. It ain't the

(44:37):
hurricane that killed us. The freshwater. Yeah, and see that hurricane.
Honestly, when they pulling all thatwater away, it's like a filter
system. It's sucking all that freshand everything out and it's refiltering. It
turns out prettier a lot of times. And it gets all your bait out
here too. Yeah, and keepsa fish really deep and they are hard
to catch. Well. You know. The crazy thing is like over here

(44:58):
our way to out pushed way upin the creeks. I mean way I
was in early I was catching troutin uh November. I just happened to
go in there trying to get outof wind. I had a handicapped gentleman
on the boat and we were amile and a half back in a creek
catching keeper trout like the winter timestuff there. Yeah, it was gonna

(45:20):
be good. Yeah, first ofDecember. You couldn't get no better hour
and a half. Have you know, twenty trout in the boat and you
hole in one of the bends inthe creek. Yeah, it was.
It was killer. Then we gotthat nine or ten inches of rain.
Boom, it started fading off,and then we got another four or five
inches on top of it, andthen it really shut down with the trout.
But even then I was I wascatching them further up and you know
what should have been, you know, fresher water, And it didn't make

(45:44):
any sense to me. I couldn'texplain that, but I was rolling with
it. You buying them fish offof Amazon right there and putting them in
there. Hey, better better thanthem wish sail cat. He bought a
good number of them on prime days. Yeah, yeah, kitty, you

(46:08):
may be glad you didn't answer thatphone last week. I had some firefire
with me sitting there, so yeah, I did. I called twice.
I showed all of them. Youjust didn't want to answer that phone because
I was sitting over some of theyou know, the guys uh with the
reels that you use. I hadthem and a couple of pros sitting there
waiting on you. It was fishingthe fire down on you. But we'll

(46:28):
get you next time, they said, when you send you reels back,
they got brand new grease. Theylook brand new when you're talking about rebuilding
them. All right, brother,we running out of Tom Kenny. It
was good talking with your brother,and we look forward to having you on
the show next week. We'll seeyou. Thank you all for tuning in
you've been listening to The Big BendOutdoor Show with Joel Baldry. Join us

(46:51):
every Saturday morning at eight am onninety six five the Spear and on demand
with the free iHeartRadio app.